Spies of the First World War.

[susan kitchen]

Just seen a book advertised in my copy of This England. The book is called Spies of the First World War. Under cover for King and Kaiser. BY James Morton. The book contains accounts of both British and German counter intelligence. Some spies were amatures and paid the ultimate price. Others were highly professional and flourished. Some were just unlucky or betrayed in bizarre circumstances. It seems as though it's one of those books you can dip in at random.

ISBN 9781905615469 published by the National Archives at £20.

Susan

[mazz69]

Hi Susan,

my Grandad mentions in his memoirs about an "enemy agent" in Belgium who was court and exicuted,

While we were at this support camp a concert party was arranged for us but I unfortunately found myself in charge of the guard. The concert had finished and about one o’clock the sentry came into the dug-out and called me out. He was an old soldier who used to be in the South African police. He said there was something going on at the adjacent farmhouse, so I turned out the guard and proceeded towards the house.

The old soldier peeped in the window and beckoned to me to have a look. I saw the farmer standing in the corner of the room like “a great bear” with his arms outstretched and a Belgian military policeman trying to persuade him to come quietly. The old soldier whispered to me “Shall I go in and help him? ” I thought for a minute and then told him to go. I was still watching through the window and I saw the farmer’s wife come in, apparently in her night attire and in followed Bill. As soon as she saw Bill with his rifle and bayonet she let out one scream and clawed his face with her finger nails. He lost his temper and caught her by her hair, while at the same moment the farmer sprang forward and tried to overpower Bill. It was then that the military policeman snapped the handcuffs on him and he was arrested. The farmer’s wife looked like a tigress fighting poor old Bill as her husband was marched away. About midday the farmhouse was hit by an enemy shell and blown to bits, killing the wife, her aged mother and a child four years of age. The farmer was duly convicted of being an enemy agent and executed.

His method of signalling to the “Jerries” was rather unique. A battery of field guns in an adjacent field to the farmhouse was always being shelled by “Jerry” gunfire and the farmer used to plough his field with a team of horses – four as a rule. Some days he would have two white horses leading and sometimes would have two chestnut horses. He would plough towards our field guns and enemy aircraft would see from the air that the furrows made by the plough would look like an arrow pointing in the direction of our field artillery. Army command gave orders to move the guns to another part of the field and new gun pits were made and concealed by nets. But still the Germans found the battery. This happened repeatedly. And strangely enough it did occur to us that he was ploughing the field too frequently.

Buzzer

[centurion]

and the farmer used to plough his field with a team of horses – four as a rule. Some days he would have two white horses leading and sometimes would have two chestnut horses. He would plough towards our field guns and enemy aircraft would see from the air that the furrows made by the plough would look like an arrow pointing in the direction of our field artillery. Army command gave orders to move the guns to another part of the field and new gun pits were made and concealed by nets. But still the Germans found the battery. This happened repeatedly. And strangely enough it did occur to us that he was ploughing the field too frequently.

Buzzer[/size]

One of the oldest trench myths of the war. It varies in detail some times but repeated many times - almost certainly false.

[mazz69]

Centurian,

would this be a "myth "during the event or after the war? if my grandad was their at the arrest of the spy , i think he would be aware of the facts?,although he was a good age when he wrote his memoirs i would imagine what he experienced would not be forgotten very easily ! and as to suggest that they are "almost certainly false " is a bit preumtuous .

Buzzer

[centurion]

Centurian,

would this be a "myth "during the event or after the war? if my grandad was their at the arrest of the spy , i think he would be aware of the facts?,although he was a good age when he wrote his memoirs i would imagine what he experienced would not be forgotten very easily ! and as to suggest that they are "almost certainly false " is a bit preumtuous .

Buzzer

The account of the Peasant's methyod of signalling combines instances in many similar accounts both during and in reminiscences after the war some of which appear elsewhere in this forum. It is I'm afraid the wartime equivalent of an urban myth